episode_0115

Meanwhile, Takuya, who had just started climbing the stairs, was tense.

It wasn’t simply because Tsutomu, who was above, seemed likely to ambush him.

He had experienced such ambushes hundreds of times during war.

So why was he tense?

The answer was surprisingly simple.

‘I can’t feel any presence from Tsutomu.’

It was because Tsutomu’s presence, which he had felt just moments ago from above the stairs, was now completely gone.

It could simply be that he had fled and disappeared.

In fact, that was the most likely possibility.

But his intuition told him otherwise.

It was definitely not a retreat.

His inexplicable intuition was absolutely certain of it.

Therefore, he ascended the stairs with utmost caution, and at the same moment.

-Bang!

“Gah!”

He was ambushed.

More precisely, he collided with Tsutomu’s massive body, which seemed to come from nowhere, and tumbled awkwardly onto the floor.

And at the same time, dozens of windows began to appear before his eyes.

[*Warning: The villain is in a berserk state. Exercise caution.]

[*Warning: The villain’s strength has dramatically increased.]

[*Warning: The villain’s agility has dramatically increased.]

[*Warning: The villain’s aggression has dramatically increased.]

[*Warning: The villain’s skin has hardened.]

Takuya had no choice but to clench his teeth at the messages covering his vision.

‘If he was in that state, you should have told me beforehand!’

If he had known this, he would have run faster!

He wasn’t in much pain because he had an iron plate over his stomach, but he couldn’t help but feel like crap.

Even as he cursed the screen, Takuya did not lose his composure.

Because in a situation like this, getting excited would be enough to screw him over.

While Takuya was thinking that, Tsutomu, who had sent Takuya flying, looked at him and roared.

“Grrr!”

Takuya was dumbfounded by Tsutomu’s beast-like cries.

He had seen that aggression increased, but does increased aggression make one cry like a beast?

Of course, it was a problem that arose because his wildness also increased on a screen Takuya hadn’t seen, but in truth, crying like a beast was a minor issue compared to Tsutomu’s changed appearance.

Indeed. Tsutomu’s body was now one or two times larger than what Takuya had seen in the basement earlier, and his entire body was red, as if he thought he was the protagonist of a pirate manga.

Thinking that, Takuya properly gripped the knife in his hand and watched Tsutomu charge at him.

“Graaahhh!!”

After a moment, Tsutomu, whose intelligence had now dropped to almost beast-like levels, began to charge.

Takuya charged back at Tsutomu.

It wasn’t that Takuya was crazy and intended to confront Tsutomu head-on.

-Slice!

‘Damn tough.’

It was merely to confirm how tough his skin was, as the screen had mentioned earlier.

After confirming how tough Tsutomu’s skin was, he was astonished.

Normally, it wouldn’t have been strange for it to embed in Tsutomu’s arm, but it had only made a shallow cut.

While he was astonished by the feeling of scraping a wooden board.

Tsutomu charged again.

Looking at Tsutomu, he thought the knife was no longer useful, and pulled out a flail—a weapon favored in the Republic of Korea, no, one that had been used since the Joseon Dynasty.

Of course, its size was very small compared to the large size we know.

-Crunch!

But that alone was enough to crack a person’s skull.

Tsutomu, who had been hit in the arm by the flail, seemed to be in pain, clutching his injured arm and groaning.

He saw that as an opportunity and immediately approached Tsutomu, intending to give him a few more tastes of the flail.

Naturally, he planned to approach from the direction of Tsutomu’s pained, flail-struck arm, making it difficult for him to throw a punch, lest he foolishly get hit himself.

-Thwack!

If only that crazy beast hadn’t thrown a punch while clutching his flail-struck arm.

‘Is he some kind of Baki?!’

He was astonished to see Tsutomu, even while clutching his painful arm, looking pleased that he had landed a hit on him.

No. Even a fighting game character wouldn’t do something like that!

But there was no time for complaints.

Even with the iron plate on his stomach, the accumulated damage was significant, so Takuya had little strength left to move.

Therefore, he had to quickly get up, either to flee or to prepare for the next attack.

And as if Tsutomu knew that too.

“Kwahahaha!!”

“Gah!”

He leaped like a monster and landed on Takuya’s body, preventing him from getting up.

While Takuya was horrified by Tsutomu’s monstrous appearance, Tsutomu raised his fist, intending to strike Takuya with his even larger fist.

No. He *was* about to.

“Grwoooargh!!”

Because Chunsik, who burst out of the bushes, appeared, biting Tsutomu’s nape.

He cheered at the sight of Chunsik, who bit Tsutomu’s nape and dragged him along.

‘Damn, this makes things easy!’

No matter how superhuman Tsutomu’s strength was, fighting a bear was still impossible…

“Graaahhh!”

“Grwoooargh!”

…or so he thought.

No. What the hell is that?

He was astonished to see Tsutomu fighting a bear on equal footing.

Even if Chunsik had been starving for days and had just eaten, was it even possible for a human to fight a bear on equal terms?

He was utterly horrified by the absurd scene, but the astonishing part wasn’t over yet.

Astonishingly, Tsutomu took Chunsik’s punch head-on, and then, in turn, delivered a decisive blow to Chunsik himself.

“Grwooooaargh!!!”

With that punch, Chunsik, too, seemed to be in pain, letting out a wild roar of agony.

He was so aghast he couldn’t speak, but that only lasted for a moment.

‘What a game with insane balance.’

He muttered that to himself and prepared to charge again, weapon in hand.

Because at this rate, Chunsik didn’t seem like he could last much longer.

Takuya thought so to himself. While Chunsik was drawing Tsutomu’s aggro, Takuya swiftly ran and brought his flail down on Tsutomu’s head, aiming to finish him off for good.

No. He *was* about to hit him.

‘No. What the heck?!’

Not only did Tsutomu, who was focused on Chunsik, grab Takuya’s flail with his hand…

-Wham!

“Grwoooargh!”

…he knocked Chunsik out with a single punch.

Before he could even be shocked by that sight, Tsutomu, who had knocked Chunsik down, approached him and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck. No.

“Gasp! Cough!”

He squeezed his slender neck with his large hand.

Even as he struggled with his constricted throat, he looked at Tsutomu’s face.

The gaze in Tsutomu’s eyes, when he saw them, was strange.

It wasn’t simply that he had gone crazy.

When he first saw him, there was clear hatred; when he fled, fear; and before fighting Chunsik, only wild, animalistic instinct remained as he looked at him. But now, Tsutomu’s eyes were like this. Like…

…the eyes of someone looking at a sworn, unforgivable enemy [a proverb meaning an enemy with whom one cannot live under the same sky].

It was a look he was very familiar with, so he recognized it clearly.

But that’s what raised the question.

Why on earth was Tsutomu looking at him like this?

He understood the hateful look, but to look at him with such eyes? Why?

‘No. From the start.’

Was this being even Tsutomu?

“Ughhh!”

As he thought that, Tsutomu’s large hand squeezed his neck even harder, and he was on the verge of losing consciousness from lack of oxygen.

He realized someone was approaching Tsutomu from behind.

He made sure not to shift his gaze or move his pupils at that sight, and as if in reward for his actions, someone.

-Crack!

Slammed down on Tsutomu’s head.

It was an attack strong enough to have caved in the skull of a normal human.

But Tsutomu, no. Something endured the attack.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, that didn’t work?”

The ‘something’ turned its head to look at the woman who had struck its head, then turned back to him and spoke.

“Don’t… think… this… will… end… it… ■Re■er.”

-Thud.

With those last words, he collapsed into the nearby bushes, and in the process, Takuya slipped free from Tsutomu’s grip and was able to breathe again.

“Cough! Cough! Gasp… Gasp…”

He spat out the copious saliva in his throat onto the ground and stabilized his breathing.

“Gasp… Gasp… I thought I was going to die.”

With his breathing stabilized, he approached the fallen Tsutomu for a moment.

His physique had become even smaller and fatter than when he had seen him in the basement earlier.

Seeing that, he subtly checked Tsutomu’s pulse, and then thought.

Tsutomu had ended his life…

“…He’s just unconscious…”

…He hadn’t, he was only unconscious.

‘Good.’

And confirming that Tsutomu was merely unconscious, he felt relieved.

Why was he relieved, you ask?

Naturally, it wasn’t for reasons of principle, morality, or legality.

It was simply.

‘Because it would be troublesome if he died before receiving the punishment I’d give him.’

Because he was a person who shouldn’t die so easily.

He stared at the fallen Tsutomu for a moment, then slumped to the floor.

Whether it was because his neck had been choked, or simply because he had continuously engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Tsutomu, he had no strength left to stand.

As he sat there, he thought about the Tsutomu he had last seen. No. About the ‘something’ that he wasn’t even sure was Tsutomu.

‘What on earth was that thing?’

That being clearly seemed to know him.

No. More than just knowing, it seemed to hate him intensely.

‘What could it be?’

What was its connection to him, to look at him like that, and what was that monstrous form it showed at the end?

Takuya pondered for a moment, but no answer emerged in his mind.

At the very least, it wasn’t something that could be resolved within his scope of common sense.

“Ah, whatever.”

Having roughly delegated his worries to his future self, he lay down, ready to fall asleep.

That is, until a shadow appeared in his vision.

“What do you mean, ‘whatever’? This time, a proper explanation will be needed, kid.”

At the female detective’s stern gaze directed at him, he, without realizing it, accidentally.

[You lose memories of the events here and simultaneously fall unconscious.]

…cast a hypnosis spell.

“What… the…”

-Thud.

Honestly, he was utterly fed up with any more troublesome matters.